The castle being taken, the town was commanded. A heavy gun was dragged to the gate connected with the town and fired through it, which blew it open. The enemy now finding the castle in our possession, and also finding the British entering another part of the town by escalade, were obliged to oppose them with a greater part of their force. I was lying upon the grass by my comrades, having the most gloomy thoughts of the termination of this sad affair, when a staff officer rode up and said, "Lord Wellington orders the Light Division to return immediately and attack the breaches." We moved back to this bloody work as if nothing had happened. Never were braver men congregated together for such a purpose. We entered the ditches, and passed over the bodies of our brave fellows who had fallen and dashed forward to the breaches. Only a few random shots were now fired, and we entered without opposition. Firing was now going on in several parts of the town, and we were not long in chiming in with the rest of them. The prisoners were secured and the place was given up to be plundered and pillaged. I am sorry to say our soldiers were now become nearly as great adepts as any Continental soldiers in this work of destruction. I went into a genteel house. The Spaniard told me the French Quartermaster-General had lived with him. He showed me the officer's room. I found a bottle of wine and two glasses upon the table. There was a piece of paper upon which he had made a rough sketch of the two breaches, and had represented the way our columns would move to the attack. He also had marked where the ladders would be placed to avoid some water in the ditch, and which latter was the only place where their shot could not have effect. I suppose the water had been turned into the ditch for this purpose. The Spaniard said that the two officers went out in great alarm. I sat down and drank the bottle of wine and got some eggs and bacon fried. When the day dawned I went to see the breaches. I found a breast-work of sand-bags upon them, constructed for the enemy to fire over a strong _chevaux de frise_. Placed in front and across the breaches here and there were large beams studded with long spikes irregularly thrown about to impede our advance. Behind these breast-works the ground was cut and intersected with deep trenches and covered with planks, to enable the enemy to get to the breaches and ramparts. In the bottom of these trenches were placed swords and bayonets fixed upon pieces of wood to wound those who fell upon them. Holes were made in the ramparts big enough for a man to sit in, with a deep groove to lay his musket in and fire. In short, the Governor had done everything in his power to make the place as defensible as possible, and displayed a great deal of ability and judgment in his masterly arrangements. The ramparts were lined with live shells and barrels of powder, cart wheels, and lumps of wood and iron, ready to be thrown into the ditch.